Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and beginning April 20th, 2021 (Eastern Time) the Yahoo Answers website will be in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.

?
Lv 6
? asked in SportsRunning · 8 years ago

Will I be an athlete when I am older?

I am a 14 year old boy and I run 3 times a week in the morning. I run 3 and a half miles which is 5400 meters. I run it fairly easily. When I see the athletes on the TV running 5000 meters I wonder if I keep going will I be as good as them? They train really hard for it and eat clean, I have only trained by running 3 times a week and I eat fairly healthy and I can already do what they can. Does this mean that I will be as good as them?

Update:

I also ran for my school and came 2nd in my county, and 32nd in my country, Wales.

1 Answer

Relevance
  • 8 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    It sounds like you should join your school's cross country team or track team. Motivation and belief in one's self are vital to a successful runner and it seems you already have those two things which many elite runners lack.

    With that being said, the obvious barrier isn't distance, it's Speed. The Olympic runners can run 5k times 4 or 5 minutes faster than an average senior cross country runner in highschool can. If you want to become an athlete when you're older, you miss as well get started now. What I suggest is increasing your days per week to 5 and then slowly increasing your mileage. Start counting your miles based on weeks (right now it sounds like you're hitting 10.5 a week). You will want to add NO MORE than 15% a week, but stick closer to 10%. When you join a team, stop using my advice and use your coaches advice.

Still have questions? Get your answers by asking now.